(Phys.org) —As the demand for rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries has grown, the battery industry has found itself facing a problem of supply-and-demand. Lithium is not an abundant element, and ...

(Phys.org) —Certain bonds connecting biological cells get stronger when they're tugged. Those bonds could help keep hearts together and pumping; breakdowns of those bonds could help cancer cells break away ...

Battery weight has long vexed engineers designing electric cars for the mass market. Bigger batteries are needed to power a car for longer distances, but their weight in turn requires the car to expend more ...

(Phys.org) —Whip together an industrial waste product and a bit of plastic and you might have the recipe for the next revolution in battery technology. Scientists from the National Institute of Standards ...

Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage systems have already demonstrated how efficient, reliable, and safe they can be in commercial electric vehicles. These high safety standards now also have to be transferred ...

Controlling the flow of heat through materials is important for many technologies. While materials with high and low thermal conductivities are available, materials with variable and reversible thermal conductivities ...

Hospital germs can be fatal, since they are resistant to antibiotics. As a result, alternative methods of defense against bacteria are in demand. Fortunately, a German-French research team has been able to ...

(Phys.org) —When a multiply charged aluminum or magnesium cation encounters a single water molecule, the result can be explosive. The metal ion rips an electron from the water molecule, causing a molecular-level ...

Structural biologists have made important progress towards better understanding the functioning of the circadian clock. The circadian or inner clock coordinates the sleep-wake rhythm and many other body processes ...

(Phys.org) —Disease-causing bacteria possess elaborate defensive arsenals used to withstand the body's best efforts to annihilate them. Salmonella, causative agent of food-borne illness, is one such pathogen, ...

(Phys.org) —Batteries do not age gracefully. The lithium ions that power portable electronics cause lingering structural damage with each cycle of charge and discharge, making devices from smartphones to ...

Biologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) report today that they have succeeded in obtaining an unprecedented view of a type of brain-cell receptor that is implicated in a range of neurological illnesses, ...

(Phys.org) —Fuel cells for decentralized energy production require oxygen ion conductors: materials that can store oxygen as ions, and then transport and release it. German researchers have now found an ...

(Phys.org) —If the recently released Google Glass and soon-to-be-available Apple iWatch are any indication, wearable electronics may be the next big wave of the future. Although they offer some cutting-edge ...

Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä report a new method of building molecular cages. The method involves the exploitation of intermolecular steric effects to control the outcome of a self-assembly reaction.